Imaging devices, such as scanning devices and digital cameras, generate machine-readable image data (sometimes referred to simply as image data) representative of an image of an object. The process of generating image data representative of an image of the object is sometimes referred to as scanning the object. One example of an object is a document having text printed thereon. In some scanning devices, the document is set on a platen, and image data is generated by a carriage moving relative to the platen within the scanning device. The carriage has devices that generate image data representative of an image of the object located on the platen. In other scanning devices, the document is placed into an automatic document feeder and then moved past a stationary component, such as a stationary carriage, that scans the document. Digital cameras, on the other hand, generate image data by focusing the image onto a two-dimensional photosensor device that generates image data without the need for moving a carriage.
The image data is typically transmitted to a viewing device that replicates the image of the scanned object based on the image data. For example, the viewing device may be a video monitor that processes the image data to display the image of the object. In another example, the viewing device may be a printer that processes the image data to print an image of the object.
The viewing device replicates the image of the object as it was scanned. For example, if the document was placed upside down in a scanner, the viewing device will display the replicated image upside down. Likewise, if the document is scanned side ways, it will be replicated on the viewing device side ways. A viewer of the replicated image must then manipulate the image in order to rotate it to the proper orientation. This process is typically time consuming and may be cumbersome to the inexperienced viewer.
Furthermore, optical character recognition engines are typically unable to recognize improperly oriented text. Accordingly, the image data generated by an improperly oriented document typically cannot have an optical character recognition engine applied to it.